Now I've seen everything - an elephant tusk extraction!!

Though I personally do not believe in elephants being used in zoos and circuses, on the news tonight there was a very interesting story. I found the accompanying website and will post the story below as well as a link to Youtube.com to watch the training of the elephant and actual surgery. Not only does it point out some of the amazing things veterinary medicine can do, but it also shows how intelligent elephants are by complying with the training the first time - but the second time he knew "something is up".

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March 29, 2007
TUSKO THE ELEPHANT GOES IN FOR SECOND TUSK-REMOVAL SURGERY
Surgeons to remove the final section of Oregon Zoo bull elephant's infected tusk

PORTLAND, Ore. -- After 14 years with a broken tusk, Tusko the Asian elephant will finally be tuskless. The 6.75-ton, 35-year-old bull elephant, on loan to the Oregon Zoo from a private elephant facility in California, is set to have a final tusk surgery on April 1. The last few inches of Tusko's chronically infected, broken left tusk will be removed completely during the surgery.

Nearly all of Tusko's broken left tusk was removed during a February operation. However, the surgical crew was unable to remove a chunk of compacted, hard dentin tissue in the deep part of the tusk cavity. Veterinarians could not risk keeping Tusko under anesthesia any longer because of the possibility he might be too weak to stand up.

"After four hours of surgery, we discovered our tools were not long enough to reach all of the tusk," said Dr. Mitch Finnegan, Oregon Zoo lead veterinarian. "But we would have stopped the surgery even if we had longer tools available -- we simply ran out of time."

Before the initial surgery in February, keepers had trained Tusko to lie down on a 12-by-16-foot waterbed for the surgery. The 2,000-gallon bed was filled with warm water after the elephant was anesthetized. Because he is a former circus elephant, Tusko was already well-trained in a variety of behaviors, and continues to lie down when requested.

Elephants lie down to sleep, but can only do so for a few hours at a time because their large body mass can cause them to suffocate. Lying on the waterbed helps prevent damage to his internal organs and loss of blood circulation, both of which can prove fatal.

Trainers had also placed large straps under the waterbed, which were attached to chains linked through rollers. If Tusko had been unable to stand up on his own, they would have used the straps to assist him.

The April 1 surgery will be very similar to the February operation. Tusko resumed his training to lie on the specialized waterbed soon after the first surgery. The emergency safety straps will again be in place to lift Tusko in the event he is unable to stand after surgery.

This surgery is risky, but Finnegan says the risks are outweighed by Tusko's discomfort and the overall threat the chronic infection poses to his long-term health. The concerns for this round are the same as the last. However, the veterinary staff expects this surgery to take less time. The first surgery lasted five and a half hours.

"Since the last surgery we worked with the maintenance staff to specially order and fabricate the exact length of tools we need," said Finnegan. "I don't foresee this surgery taking as long."

Tusko is expected to make a full recovery from his surgery and should completely heal within the next year as the wound slowly fills in with new tissue.

To see a video of Tusko's February surgery, please visit: http://www.oregonzoo.org/VideoArchive/TuskoSurgeryVNR.htm

To see video of Tusko's training, please visit: http://www.oregonzoo.org/VideoArchive/elephant_TuskoSurgery.htm

Tusko broke both his tusks during the late 1970s and had his right tusk was removed when he was a young elephant.

"Breaking tusks is not a problem unique to elephants in captivity," said Mike Keele, Oregon Zoo deputy director. "It is common in wild elephants as well." Tusks grow throughout an elephant's life, but otherwise are essentially no different from ordinary teeth. However, Tusko's left tusk had died and was no longer growing.

Mitch Finnegan compared the tusk to a broken, rotten tooth in a human. "Bacteria build up in the wound and may enter into the bloodstream," he said. "This can cause heart problems."

Tusko was born in Southeast Asia in 1971. He came to the Oregon Zoo in 2005 from an California elephant facility for the purpose of breeding with Sung Surin and Rose Tu. If Sung Surin doesn't get pregnant by the time she turns 25, according to Keele, the odds are against her becoming pregnant beyond that age. Even though the Oregon Zoo had male elephants Packy and Rama prior to Tusko's arrival, their genetic relatedness to the zoo's females makes breeding unfeasible.

In the past 25-30 years, more has been learned about elephants than in the past 5,000 years. This is largely because elephants have been subject to intensive study at zoos across the world. The Oregon Zoo has been at the forefront of many discoveries. Until only recently, humans knew next to nothing about the reproductive biology of elephants. But through work at the Oregon Zoo and elsewhere, we know much more about elephant breeding cycles, the length of gestation and how elephants rear their young.

An endangered species, Asian elephants are represented by an estimated 38,000-51,000 individuals living in fragmented populations in the wild. Agriculture, deforestation and conflict with humans pose a constant threat to wild Asian elephants. The Oregon Zoo, through the Future for Wildlife program, has supported several range-country conservation projects primarily to protect native elephant habitat and to mitigate the often fatal human-elephant conflicts. Human-elephant conflicts are now the leading cause of death for elephants in Asia.

In response to the dwindling population of Asian elephants in the wild, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, of which the Oregon Zoo is a member, strives to maintain a sustainable population of the endangered elephants in North America. Currently, birth rates are lower than necessary to do so. Tusko will contribute to the genetic diversity, and perhaps the eventual survival, of the Asian elephant population in North America.

The Youtube.com link is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2K-jshZgaU